Put down that pacifier,son, and let's get working on that split-finger fastball.

Joanne Jacobs points to an interesting dichotomy among American parents and kids in sports.

Last week, HBO's Real Sports - consistently the best newsmagazine program on television - looked into the growing "epidemic" of parents pushing their kids in youth baseball to the point of devastating injury. (Watching 13-year old kids prepped for Tommy John surgery doesn't exactly produce a warm and fuzzy feeling.)

If a parent holds their child's hand over an open flame, causing injury, that would represent neglect or criminality. Yet, nobody seems to think anything of parents and coaches letting a 10-year old throw 60, hard breaking balls in a week, causing injury. Some adults have convinced themselves that's something different.

So while the Hispanic families in a story that Joanne Jacobs points to might seem a bit extreme in keeping their children out of sports, what's worse?